Greater Seattle living
 

Where is a good area to live in the Greater Seattle? In terms of good school district, low crime, etc.

Thanks

Issaquah is my pick. But it’s not really affordable for an Alaska pilot hired today buying at today’s prices.


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I'm not an Alaska guy, but was stationed at JBLM for a few years. We lived in the Puyallup area, near South Hill specifically. We absolutely loved it with young kids. About 45 minutes from the airport, no I-5 traffic, good schools. We also looked at the newer houses being built in the Orting area. Loved it so much, it's been our dream to get based at SEA for a career.

Gig Harbor, Mukilteo, Bothell, Kirkland, Sammamish.

Otherwise known as "the airline pilot ghetto."

You can't swing a dead cat without hitting an airline pilot in Gig Harbor.

What about Mill Creek? Also, how is the SEA-LAX commute?

Thanks for the replies.

PETA will get you for that - at least in King County. Gig Harbor you might get away with it...;)

People Eating Tasty Animals?

I will want some BBQ sauce with them. Can PETA supply me a case of it?:p

FNG but long time Seattle-ite here. Why are there so many pilots of damn near every airline in Gig Harbor?

Because the Seattleites have rendered King County damn near unlivable.

The joke in Seattle is that if you step on something on the sidewalk you say “I HOPE that is dog$h|t.”

Only it’s no joke.

https://i.ibb.co/h8WpSD2/FE60913-D-6...BE4962-EE5.jpg

Yup. Just like California. Except you get to enjoy no state income tax.

Perhaps...
 

Perhaps Seattle should make Penny Loafers illegal instead, then all you guys could commute from Nome where you belong.

No pilot group has gone from working class to white collar with as little merit as at Alaska. It might be nice if you showed a little humility occasionally, especially for your adopted community of Seattle with within which your corporate shell is embedded like a parasite while advertising something completely different to the outside world.

Walking the beaches near Dutch and Cold Bay, its amazing how many plastic drinking straws you find. Some might even say "The Spirit of Chester Seveck" on them.

Lol what?
What in God's holy name are you blathering about?

Maybe I’m “Blathering” about the reference to opioid addiction in Seattle and plastic pollution in the N Pacific.

What’s your point?

From working class to white collar with little merit? Troll. You took offense to needles, drugs, homeless, while plastics are banned. What he said is true about Seattle. No need to play the outraged victim card. :rolleyes:

Gutsy! I like your style.

Seattle McDonald’s advertisement


https://i.ibb.co/JjzfsPX/5-C65-B74-D...-A96-EFD81.jpg

Back to the OP's question: If you're a single guy or gal and don't mind having a roommate, or a tiny apartment, I would check out West Seattle. Easy and fast to the employee lot and lots of good restaurants and bars. If you need to find somewhere that suitable for a family, Gig Harbor is a good spot. There are also a decent amount of pilots who live on Bainbridge Island, but that could get tricky on reserve. Also, places south and east of seatac seem to be up and coming: Renton, Kent, Auburn, Maple Valley and eventually you'll end up at the other pilot ghetto...Lake Tapps. Good luck.

Thanks for the recommendations. I have a young family with a 3 years old daughter.

Without additional qualifiers and looking to the future after reserve, I would recommend looking South of Olympia, ... Little Rock, Tenino, Chehalis , Centralia, even Napavine, or slightly east.

Way more house for the money, great school districts ... reserve will only last so long ..., unless you need the big city environment?

Then I would look at Kent or Tacoma, ... both being gentrified as we speak, ... Good Luck and take care.

I second Mukilteo in the north end. That or Mill Creek or Edmonds. Very good schools, especially in the first two. Close to the water. Expensive, but hell it’s Seattle. Only downside is the drive to SeaTac, definitely not a place to do day trips from. Still well within reserve limits though.

Bellevue. Good schools/Safe/no bums and not too far from SeaTac.

You forgot "super expensive."

Alaska has a base in both of those cities. Why would you want to commute it instead of living in base?

Maybe he plans on living and being based in SEA but can’t hold it yet. LAX is a Jr. base. Lots of new hires are going there with the intention of coming up to SEA. I commuted to a few of our other bases before being able to hold SEA. I’d recommend getting outside of King County. Lower taxes, housing costs and overall cost of living. That generally puts you about 45 mins to an hour away from the airport (no traffic).

Washington: no state income tax.
California:

So basically it’s about a $25,000 a year difference in taxes, since sales taxes and property taxes are roughly the same...

That's not how income tax works.
Those are buckets.

Marginal tax rates are hard:rolleyes:

I'm not sure what income assumptions are being used but I found a tax calculator and the effective income tax rate for 250k is 8.04% in California.

If you are a captain making $300k a year (8-year 244 k salary plus $56k from non tax-deferred investments) you have an effective California income tax rate of 8.28% and a tax bill of $24,835.

If you want to count coup on me for the $165, so be it.

If you are an eight year captain and don’t have investments bringing in $56k a year (basically about $700k in a stock portfolio) you haven’t been saving enough. And if you don’t have $1 million in investments when you top out at 12 years, and are making $266k in salary, you are seriously delinquent in your financial planning.

So yeah, by the time your career peaks, it will be every bit of $25k a year.

Damn that's a lot of investment income. *Golf claps*

And the 1% CASDI, not sure if Washington has a similar tax.

Nope. The “c” in CASDI is for California.

Only five states plus Puerto Rico have that and only Rhode Island (at 1.1% employee ‘contribution’) taxes at a higher rate.

Yes, VEERRRY expensive; unless you're double dipping ex military, forget Edmonds and Mukilteo.

IMHO - even though born and raised in Seattle - forget it, and live in SoCal; you can rent as cheaply and at least the weather's decent.

Exactly my point.

Federal Way
 

Looking to move to Seattle as well. Looking at the Federal Way area. Nice and close to SEATAC!! No kids. Thoughts overall on the area?

Used to be better than it is now, but there are areas that are still good. School District is still fair, that is if your high school age kids select the college prep classes they’ll get a decent education. With no kids and looking to rent you can certainly find decent housing at a not-too (for King County) Unreasonable price.

If this is your forever home though you might look at the Brown’s Point area though.

The Ruston area in Tacoma has some nice areas too if you want a view.

Brown's Point seems like a very nice area, but with the bonus of not having to fight Port Of Tacoma traffic.